July 22, 2016

QUENCH YOURSELF WITH THE BLOODTHIRSTY UNDEAD IN DAY BY
DAYARMAGEDDON: GHOST RUN!

The much anticipated fourth book in J.L. Bourne’s Day by
Day Armageddon series—an acclaimed military thriller series of the zombie
apocalypse—DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON: GHOST
RUN(Gallery Books; July 19, 2016; $16.00) is a sure bet for
fans of the smash hit show The Walking Dead, bringing all-new tales of the
zombie apocalypse! As a commissioned military officer with twenty years of
active military and intelligence community service behind him, J.L. delivers an
intelligent and suspenseful thriller that will terrify die-hard horror fans and
reinforce J.L. Bourne’s reputation as “the new king of hardcore zombie fiction”
(Brad Thor, New York Times bestselling author).

In a desperate bid to survive a world forever altered…as
the hordes of bloodthirsty undead now dominate the ravaged U.S. landscape…a Navy
commander on a reconnaissance mission for basic supplies stumbles upon an
incredible secret about the possibility of reversing the pandemic’s devastating
effects that have annihilated everything in its path. Now there’s no turning
back—with only his lifelong-honed skills and the aid of an extraordinary
construct, he leads a one-man rescue mission to find Task Force Phoenix and
humanity’s final hope. And the agonizing, split-second decisions he must make
along the way could mean living one more day—or surrendering to the eternal hell
that exists between life and death.

Praise for Ghost Run:

“Day by Day Armageddon:
Ghost Run is a deeply satisfying read for
any fan of survivalist horror, zombie fiction, or military heroes. With its
rousing pace and compelling narrator, it's best savored at a breathless sprint.
The only real surprise is how this series has reached its fourth installment
without a movie or TV deal being set in motion—it’s certainly cinematic enough
in its action-packed flourishes.”

—Criminal Element

An interview with J.L. Bourne:

J.L. Bourne’s interview with Survival
Punk will post on Wednesday, July 20th!

About the author:

J.L. Bourne is a
commissioned military officer and acclaimed author of the horror series Day by
Day Armageddon and the dystopian thriller Tomorrow War. With twenty years
of active military and intelligence community service behind him, J.L. brands a
realistic and unique style of fiction. He lives on the Gulf Coast but is
sometimes spotted toting a rifle and a Bowie knife in the rural hills of
Arkansas, where he grew up. Visit him at JLBourne.com, on Facebook at OfficialJLBourne, and on
Twitter @jlbourne…before
the grid goes dark.

Day by Day Giveaways!

Thursday and Friday of this week, bloggers will give away one bundle (one copy each of books 1-3) in the Day by Day Armageddon series. See the schedule below. You may enter all the giveaways, but you can only win once. U.S. only.

It was a lot of brainstorming. Once I
had the initial idea - what would happen if angels and demons lived among us -
it was a matter of figuring out what they were doing there. What had happened to
make it important for angels to be on earth? And what did the demons really
want? How did that fold up into a bigger conflict?

I really love building fantasy worlds, so my
favorite part was thinking about what the worlds of Glisten & Slag looked
like and how they had formed, then weaving in those elements into common world
history & mythology, like Atlantis. The guiding idea there is that the
demons, who thrive in chaos, are trying to figure out ways to control the
humans... and they've been doing it for hundreds of years. Angels believe that
humans should have free will and be free to make their own choices and their own
mistakes. So historical events we know were actually influenced by demons and
angels as they battle across The Field (Earth) in secret.

2.How did you come up with the names for the characters?

When I choose character names, I like to
think about how the name sounds when you say it. A name is a reflection of
identity and often kind of drives our destiny in a weird way. "Jim" is a
really unassuming name, while "Claire" sounds complex and layered. I think
that's a great representation of the characters themselves. Jim is used to being invisible at
the start of the book and doesn't expect that to change. Claire is always
thinking and overanalyzing situations.

3.How much are you and the characters alike?

I always write parts of myself into
characters, but then they take lives of their own. I'd say I'm a bit more like
Claire than Jim, especially because Claire is so observant and thoughtful about
what's happening around her. That also tends to drive her crazy as she learns
more about what she's supposed to do when she grows her wings.

4.Do you read a lot and what are you reading now?

I'm always reading! I try to keep
my literary diet really diverse. I'm just as likely to be reading a fantasy book
as I am to be reading a long history book about the mafia. The book that I
finished recently that I absolutely loved was Tales of the Dying Earth by
Jack Vance, which is a collection of Vance's fantasy writing. Cugel's Saga
in particular is just a mind-blowing adventure novel where you're
always encountering some new location or exotic species.

5. What made you decide to go Young adult?

I've always been drawn to the power
of the characters in young adult novels. The protagonists are usually learning
new things about themselves and always trying to uncover truths about the world
that, in a lot of cases, actual adults might be too jaded to see. There's also
the explosive power of first loves - and first losses - which offers a rich
emotional tapestry for the characters to explore as they find their place in the
world.

6. How did the cover come about?

I love the cover of Blest! I
think it does a great job at hinting at a lot of the secrets that get uncovered
as Jim and Claire figure out who they are... and what that means for their
families, their friends, their relationship and, ultimately, the
world.

7. So what is your next project and when is it due out?

I'm really excited about my next
project, The Amnesia Complex. It's a young adult adventure novel set in
the 2090s, so the not-to-distant future. The main character, Jade, is living on
a farm with her dad and her dad's friend. She's never been more than a mile away
from the farm and her dad tells her the rest of the world is totally destroyed
and dangerous. One day, a boy, Luke, shows up outside the farm with his parents.
I won't go into much more detail - I don't want to spoil anything - but let's
just say Jade and Luke embark on a crazy journey on their own to figure out what
actually happened to make the world the way it is.

I just finished it and now I'm
working to find an agent who can help publish & market it. But I'm hoping it
comes out next year!

8. Do you have a daytime job or are you a full time
writer?

During the day, I work for a
tech startup. I do a lot of writing for my job, too, so I'm always
writing.

9. How did you get into writing novels and were you worried about
peoples reactions to your books?

I've been writing for pretty much as long as I can remember. My
earliest "novels" were called Goosechicks and they were a total rip-off
of Goosebumps books but starring baby chickens. They had illustrations, too! I wrote them in 1st
grade. I think my dad still has one of them in the basement
somewhere.

10. One last thing do you collect anything
personally?

I do! I actually collect weird
watches. I like the idea that we've built machines just to keep track of "time"
as we know it. I try to limit myself to only getting new ones when I accomplish
a big goal... like publishing Blest! The watch I got for Blest is
called the Zinvo Blade and has a rotating second hand that looks like a
helicopter blade, like it's flying above the rest of the watch's face. I thought
that was appropriate, seeing as how Jim, Claire, and the rest of the angels and
demons do so much flying in Blest.

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog and letting us get to know you better.

July 21, 2016

Fall is my favorite time of year and
Halloween is my favorite holiday. I felt inspired to write, so I asked my
daughter to name a supernatural creature she wanted me to write a story about.
She suggested demons because they frighten her. Then I put myself in her shoes
and tried to think of what frightened me at her age (12 yrs old) and I
remembered stories classmates used to tell about a haunted cemetery that was
fifteen minutes away from my house. It was rumored that teens would go there and
worship Satan in the abandoned cemetery at nightfall. So I took the two concepts
and begancraftingthe
story.

2.How did you come up with the names
for the
characters?

Killian, the main demon hunter,
needed a strong name and I always associated that name with an Irish or Scottish
warrior. For the girl, I wanted a name that could shorten to a nickname but also
seemed good when paired with Killian, so Cassidy was chosen for the main
character. And Tyler Romaitis, I wanted a simple and trendy guy name that was
consistent with present day and the last name is homage to my Lithuanian
heritage, as most Lithuanian names end in “itis”.

3.How much are you and the characters
alike?

I am not much like any of them. I’m
more like Brogen from my Rarity book...a small number of close friends,
empathic, and nice till you cross me.

4.Do you read a lot and what are you
reading
now?

I read at
least one chapter each night, depending on how tired I am. I am currently
reading Pucked Up (not YA), and then will start A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie
Cole.

5. What made you decide to go Young
adult?

I really enjoy the YA genre. It’s a
time in life when people grow from child to adult and grow into who they are,
not who they are expected to be. There are so many emotions, so many firsts. The
trial and error of relationships, hearts broken and mended, friendships lost and
made, and a path to the future is now becoming clear. It was an amazing and
truly memorable time in my life, and I will also hold it with high regard.
Because I loved it and went through so much, I find it easy to tap into emotions
and write about that time in life.

6. How did the cover come
about?

I wish I could take credit for the
cover but the folks at Deranged Doctor Designs worked their magic and created
that masterpiece. I told them my plot, mood, and what I envisioned the
characters to look like and they came back to me with that cover. I almost
fainted when I saw it :> And then I wondered if my story did the book
justice. I mean, that’s an AMAZING cover.

7. So what is your next project and
when is it due
out?

I have a short story in the Detours
in our Destination Anthology that comes out May 2016. The anthology includes
stories of overcoming a hardship and rising above. I also have a short story in
the thriller anthology from Limitless Publishing, entitled 13, that comes out
this October. And finally, Within the Darkest Hollows, book 2 in the Demon
Hunter series is due out at the end of October.

8. Do you have a daytime job or are you
a full time
writer?

Full time writer and full time
mom.

9. How did you get into writing novels
and were you worried about peoples reactions to your
books?

My dental hygienist encouraged me to
write down a story about a time in my childhood when my family was going through
a difficult time and made it through with some help from strangers. The story of
their kindness was truly amazing and deserved to be shared, so I tried my hand
at writing and self-published the short tale. Turns out I really enjoyed writing
and kept at it.

Did I worry about people’s reactions? Not initially. I wrote the
story to tell it, hoping that people reading about kindness might encourage them
to want to be kind as well. But when I published Rarity with Limitless
Publishing, I worried about readers’ reactions. It wasn’t just about me anymore,
a company believed my story was worth supporting and I worried that if it didn’t
do well, they wouldn’t consider future
stories.

Now I have some confidence with
writing and have a few books under my belt so I worry less about reviews, and
more about just putting forward my best effort. I enjoy writing and it’s
important to remember that and stay true to writing for that reason. Honestly, I
am too close to the stories to know how they will be perceived. When I finished
BTBW, I reread it and said “Holy cow, that’s actually really good. I wonder if
other people will think that too?” That was my only guide on the quality of my
work...I liked it and enjoyed reading it.

10. One last thing do you collect
anything
personally?

Rocks. Lol. I love cool looking
rocks. When we go to the beach, I walk the shoreline and pick rocks, then add
them to my garden. My kids come home from school with pockets full of rocks and
I convince them to add them to our plants or garden.

Thank you to D.A for stopping by the
blog and letting us get to know her better.. Review to come.

March 9, 2016

Sooooo....what
book are we waiting on here at RFYF? I've always been a sucker for re-makes of the classics. So, of course, the Dorothy Must Die series caught my attention! The third book is coming out soon and WE WANT TO READ IT!!

In this dark, action-packed third book in the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series, Amy Gumm—the new girl from Kansas—must do everything in her power to save Kansas, kill Dorothy, and make Oz a free land once more. Amy Gumm’s mission to take down Dorothy Gale is not going according to plan. Dorothy has found a way to bridge the worlds of Oz and Kansas, and if the power-hungry dictator of Oz has her way, Kansas will be destroyed forever. Now, Amy has to team up with the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to save her home, restore the balance between the magic and nonmagic worlds, maybe get the guy—and kill that not-so-sweet Kansas farm girl once and for all. In the third installment of the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series, Danielle Paige’s twisted versions of beloved Oz characters are back, including the biggest, baddest, most famous of all: the Wicked Witch of the West. Welcome to the other side of the rainbow. Here there’s danger around every corner, and magic shoes won’t be able to save you(goodreads summary)

March 8, 2016

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

Grab your current read.

Open to a random page.

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

Share the title and author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

JoBell squeezed my arm. "So it's okay if you need to take some time to help her. You and your mom are two of the most important people in my life, and I love you both for the way you look out for each other."

Lora is Reading:

by Huntley Fitzpatrick

......

Surprises abound and sparks ignite in the highly anticipated, utterly romantic companion to My Life Next Door

Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To:

- find the liquor cabinet blindfolded

- need a liver transplant

- drive his car into a house

Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To:

- well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.

For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.

Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.

And Alice is caught in the middle.

Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this return to the world of My Life Next Door is a story about failing first, trying again, and having to decide whether to risk it all once more.

(goodreads summary)

......

Cindi is Reading:

by Trent Reedy

......

......

From the author of the acclaimed WORDS IN THE DUST: an action-packed YA novel set in a frighteningly plausible near future, about what happens when the States are no longer United. Danny Wright never thought he'd be the man to bring down the United States of America. In fact, he enlisted in the National Guard because he wanted to serve his country the way his father did. When the Guard is called up on the Idaho governor's orders to police a protest in Boise, it seems like a routine crowd-control mission ... but then Danny's gun misfires, spooking the other soldiers and the already fractious crowd, and by the time the smoke clears, twelve people are dead. The president wants the soldiers arrested. The governor swears to protect them. And as tensions build on both sides, the conflict slowly escalates toward the unthinkable: a second American civil war. With political questions that are popular in American culture yet rare in YA fiction, and a provocative plot that could far too easily become real, DIVIDED WE FALL is Trent Reedy's very timely YA debut.(goodreads summary)

February 29, 2016

Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yes, Liv's dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially the one where she's in a graveyard at night, watching four boys conduct dark magic rituals.The strangest part is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They're classmates from her new school in London, the school where she's starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). But what's really scaring Liv is that the dream boys seem to know things about her in real life, things they couldn't possibly know--unless they actually are in her dreams? Luckily, Liv never could resist a good mystery, and all four of those boys are pretty cute....

Review-

This book was extremely exquisite. The plots in it, and how fast they could turn was absolutely amazing. The characters and all the details in them as well were very nice. I had fallen in love with every character, and every one of their flaws. the detail in every scenery was amazing as well. I could picture exactly what was happening! I'm very pleased with this book, And I highly recommend it to absolutely anyone with any taste in anything. I am very excited for the next book to come out, That I can hardly wait!

Publisher-Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Reviewer Rating: 5 STARS!!!

Reviewed by~Carman Fickey (Student at Franklin High School)

Thank you to the publisher for the donation of this book to the Read for your Future book program in exchange for a honest review!!

Willowgrove is Kathleen Peacock's riveting conclusion to the Hemlock trilogy, a dark, romantic, paranormal suspense series that pits friendship against survival, and trust against love.

Ever since Mac's best friend, Amy, was murdered, Hemlock has been a dangerous place. But now that Mac, her boyfriend, Kyle, and Amy's ex, Jason, have investigated a mass breakout from Thornhill, a werewolf "rehabilitation" camp, the danger has only grown. Fear of the infection spreading is now at an all-time high, and anyone with a scar is suspected of being a wolf.What makes Mac even more afraid, though, are the dark experiments that the warden of Thornhill was performing on wolves in a secret asylum called Willowgrove. Uncovering the truth about what happened may be the only way for Mac to save everyone she loves and end her nightmares for good.

Review-

Willowgrove was a fantastic, fast-paced, exhilarating read. Although this was the third in the Hemlock series, author Kathleen Peacock weaves the previous book's plot into this story so the reader can easily keep up. Mackenzie, the protagonist, is a strong female role model and a tough little cookie! And of course there are plenty of hot male characters;)
Peacock writes a suspenseful plot full of twists and turns, betrayal and loyalty. The characters are all sympathetic figures, even the bad guys, as Peacock delves into their inner psyches and gives the reader a glimpse of their backstories. A five-star read and a series to keep your eye on!

Publisher-Katherine Tegen Books

Reviewer Rating: 5 STARS!!!

Reviewed by~Cindi Clubbs

Thank you to the publisher for the donation of this book to the Read for your Future book program in exchange for a honest review!!

In 2021 the world as we know it changed. The government collapsed, and the worst characteristics of human nature were shown as the world fell into ruins. Years after The Fall, the Tribes that were established are still at war. They still fight to keep what they pillaged, and most of all, they fight to keep their lies a secret. In a world filled with deception, nothing is as it seems.

I was born into this world.Hunter Marks was molded into this world; a General— a person cold and harsh. A person meant to kill me.We were told to just believe.We were taught to never question.We’re supposed to be robots and accept our roles in this altered society.Too bad Hunter and I don’t follow the rules.And we’re a hell of a lot stronger than they ever thought possible.They’ve been searching for the world’s deadliest weapon. It’s me.And I’m not following the leader any more.

Review-In Between Seasons, The Fall Series, is a great romance, heavy on the romance, that takes place in 2041 after the Fall of the government. Kate and Hunter are children of Tribal leaders and are, basically, Romeo and Juliet--forbidden love with both families wanting Kate dead. The romantic tension between the star-crossed lovers is sweet and tragic as Kate and Hunter both find themselves changing from the puppets their parents created to two people who can find love in the midst of a war-torn world.
As in any story of war, there are tensions and suspicions, betrayal and secret allies. I personally enjoy not knowing who the good guys and bad guys are. It makes for a bit of excitement. And there were DEFINITELY a few surprises! The ending was terrific but didn't hint at what direction Giovanni is going to take with the next book in the series. I'll be looking forward to the next installation:)

Publisher-Show n'ot Tell Publishing

Reviewer Rating: 4.5 Stars

Reviewed by~Cindi Clubbs

Thank you to the publisher for the donation of this book to the Read for your Future book program in exchange for a honest review!!

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About Me

This site is ran and owned by Lora with help from Cindi and Makayla and the students of Franklin High school in OHio. We take our fight for illiteracy seriously! If you would like for us to review and donate your book to Franklin High school Just email us at chaarmedone1512@aol.com